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Crowded House
Crowded House are an Australian/New Zealand band formed in 1985. They broke up in 1996 but reunited in 2006 with a new album, Time On Earth. They are one of the most recognizable and famous bands in Australian history and their current line-up consists of Neil Finn (lead singer), Nick Seymour, Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod. Former members include Paul Hester (deceased), Tim Finn, Craig Hooper and Mitchell Froom. They are known for songs like Don't Dream It's Over, Locked Out, Better Be Home Soon, Into Temptation, Private Universe and Distant Sun. History Early years (1972-1984) The Crowded House story started in 1972 when Neil Finn's older brother Tim formed Split Enz with Phil Judd in New Zealand. Neil Finn, Paul Hester and Nick Seymour were all latter members of the band and Nick Seymour was also the younger brother of Mark Seymour, lead singer of Australian band Hunters & Collectors. Formation and first album (1985-1987) After Split Enz broke up in 1984, Neil Finn and Paul Hester decided to form a new band, originally titled The Mullanes, formed in Melbourne in 1985. They were renamed Crowded House and signed on to Capitol Records. Their debut self-titled album was released in June 1986. The first two singles Mean To Me and World Where You Live failed to gain much attention, however the band were getting interest from the former Split Enz fan base. Now We're Getting Somewhere was the third single, which brought them to more attention but it was the fourth single, Don't Dream It's Over which would bring them to worldwide attention. It reached #8 in Australia, #27 in the US and #1 in Canada, which makes it the only song by the band that would be at #1. This song would was frequently used in New Zealand tourism commercials and was also the last song they performed at their Farewell To The World concert in 1996. Something So Strong would be the last single off the album and peaked at #7 on the US charts. In June 1987, a year after its release, Crowded House finally reached #1 on the Australian charts. Temple Of Low Men (1988-1990) Finn was under pressure to create a follow-up to Crowded House, which the band even joked would be called Mediocre Follow-Up. It came in July 1988, when Temple Of Low Men was released, along with the single Better Be Home Soon, which reached #42 in the US. The album was well received critically however not as well commercially received as the previous album. Also, all the four other singles off the album failed to chart altogether, which affected the sales of the album and made it their least successful album so far. Despite this, some of the songs became fan favourites. During tours, American musicial Mark Hart replaced Eddie Rayner from January 1989. After this, Finn removed Nick Seymour from the line-up, however it had not been revealed why until Neil Finn appeared on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope, citing artistic differences as the reason for this. After a month Seymour was allowed to return to the group, who decided to take a break before working on their third album. In the early 90's Neil began writing songs with his brother Tim for the future album Finn. Despite Tim being happy with the results, Neil also had the task for writing the next Crowded House album. After recording some songs with Finn and Seymour, the record company rejected most of the songs that were presented to them. Tim Finn then became a part of Crowded House and helped them record the future album. Woodface (1991-1992) These efforts yielded Woodface. It was released in July 1991 Together Alone (1993-1994) Break-up and Fairwell To The World (1995-1996) Work during break-up period (1996-2006) Reunion (2006-)